Sanguinem Vincit
by I-am-a-loner
Summary: Can two mortal enemies work together in order to conquer a common enemy?
1. Prologue

**I've had an idea going round in my head for a while now and I just had to get it on paper, I probably won't continue this until I finish Oblivion, but I just had to get this out here before I forget everything. Buuut, who knows if I'm really in a mood to juggle two stories at the same time it might happen that it gets a new chapter sooner rather than later lol**

* * *

Bodies are swaying in the rhythm of the pulsating music. The smell of sweat and arousal pierces through the room in a sweet breeze making the hair on his arms rise.

_Blood. Delicious._

He licks his lips in anticipation when he lets his eyes glaze over the room full of young bodies all grinding and crashing into each other. A veil of static electricity hangs over the room which only his sharp eyes can detect.

_Such stupid innocent fools..._

He is growing agitated. His throat is constricting and his head is starting to pound – a sure indication of hunger which has grown in him since...?

He doesn't remember the last time he ate. All because of the terror he feels towards _him._

_So...hungry..._

He knows he cannot postpone the feeding for much longer. He _has _to have something. _The sooner the better he thinks_, his brain a jumble.

He could raid the hospital for blood bags, but he yearns for the fresh stuff, straight from the vein, warm, heavy, crimson...

A girl makes eye contact with him. His eyes fixate instantly on her neck so he doesn't even see how the leather pants hug her in all the right places and how the tight blouse she's wearing is leaving little for imagination. The ease in which she walks in the thigh high killer-heeled boots would leave a supermodel frowning in jealousy, but he is too busy to see even that.

_Yum, she looks tasty._

He knows the risk; he has calculated the danger of it in his head a thousand times, but hunger always prevailed.

If he is careful, the chances of him getting caught are low, but when has he ever been known as a careful vampire?

The girl is still looking at him, now with a seductive smile plastered on her features. He manages to force a smile on his own.

He can almost smell the blood on her and he subdues the moan that's trying to escape his throat when he thinks of the thick red hot liquid on his tongue.

The girl is now next to him.

_Constrain yourself._

She smells oh so sweetly. It almost suffocates all of his other senses. He is hypnotized and mesmerized by her and the thought of what's coming next makes his fingertips tingle and leaves his gums aching.

"You want to get out of here?" She yells over the blaring music into his ear, her breath leaving his whole body shivering.

He is speechless, unable to utter a single sentence so he only nods.

_Finally_

He inhales the sickly-sweet smell of her, he almost loses it.

The girl leads him into an adjacent alley which smells like rotten fish and death. He wonders why there, but brushes that thought off instantly when his eyes focus again on her back, on the way her long chestnut hair sway with every step she takes.

He feels the incisors coming out and the veins under his eyes bulge. His whole body tenses in preparation of the attack. With a blink of an eye he is in front of the girl whose eyes bulge in fear.

He pushes her against the wall and looks straight into her eyes – "Don't scream." His pupils dilate and the girl nods with a blank stare.

He buries his nose into her hair, he wants to cherish this moment, and he has been waiting for too long.

"Divine..." he mumbles while caressing the vein on her neck with his thumb.

He opens his mouth and prepares to sink his teeth in the neck when he suddenly feels a searing pain in his stomach.

He stumbles back and grabs his stomach, that's when he notices the wooden stake protruding from his abdomen. He looks at the girl in bewilderment, but now she doesn't look like a girl anymore.

"What the...?" he sputters through the pain and tries to pull the stake out but when he touches the wood his fingers begin to burn.

"Vervain," he hisses.

"Aw, did I hurt the big bad vampire?" The woman purrs, walking closer to him with a sway in her hips.

"You..." the vampire again tries to pull the stake out, but again, he fails. The pain is just unbearable. He falls on the ground, panting and that is when the fear sets in.

The woman lets out a peal of laughter; he can see how much she is enjoying the situation.

"You vampires... always so predictable..." she says and crouches next to the man in pain. "The hunger is what betrays you." She whispers into his ear and twists the stake in his stomach, making him scream out in terror and agony.

"You were especially obvious." She says and twists the stake again. "Your skin is withered up, your eyes red..." She inhales sharply, "But the smell..." another twist. "I can smell it on you." The woman smiles sweetly.

"Just kill me," he begs; anything would be better than suffering through this torture.

She raises her eyebrows – "Kill you? Now where's the fun in that?"

The woman reaches out into her boot and pulls out another wooden stake which she promptly shoves into the vampire's leg. He screams again and the woman laughs.

"You were so immersed in you hunger that you failed to _see _me." She says, "Your kind is so easy to fool, bat an eye and you're putty in my hands, thinking that I'm going to be an easy meal." She takes out another wooden stake and shoves it into his other leg.

"Then the same old – trying to compel me and not noticing that I can't be compelled." She takes the stake out of his stomach and examines it briefly before thrusting it into his chest, right next to his heart, so it's barely scraping it.

The moon hangs fat and full over their heads, and the light suddenly hits her face making him gasp out in surprise and in pain.

"You..." he hisses.

The woman cocks an eyebrow – "Me." She sees that he has recognized her now.

"You're supposed to be dead, hunter" he says.

"I'm not that easy to kill," she responds and takes out the stakes from his legs. The wounds don't heal since he hasn't fed. "But you are." She says and shoves the stake right through the vampire's heart, killing him instantly.

The woman stands up and looks at the body with disgust. She doesn't bother getting rid of the body since she knows that this killing will be swept under the rug either way. And leaving it there would be a good way to let _him _know that she's back. After all, her way of killing vampires is a well known trademark all over the country.

She starts to make her way back to the club where she could get a couple of drinks when she hears the clapping behind her.

_Clap. Clap. Clap._

She spins around on her heels and squints at the darkness. At first she sees no one but after while a figure emerges from the shadows.

"Bravo." A man's voice says, sweet like honey. "I've always wanted to see the notorious vampire hunter Elena Gilbert in action, and I have to say that I'm impressed." She sees an outline of a man, but can't make out any details of him. "Exceptional, indeed." He muses and turns his head to look at the body.

"Show yourself!" Elena yells, tense, because he knows her name. No one should know her name.

The man takes another step towards her and the light hits his face. Elena takes an involuntary step back.

"You," She hisses when she sees the dishevelled hair, the strong jawline and high cheekbones. There is no doubt about his identity.

The man looks genuinely surprised – "You recognize me?" He takes another step towards her.

"Everyone knows who you are – the ripper." She says, and for the first time in a long while, fear washes over her.

The ripper is someone who everyone fears, no matter how masterful the hunter. She had heard stories of him, stories which left her whole body with a feeling of unease. How the ripper didn't show any mercy to his victims, how the victims were always torn apart into pieces and how every single last drop of blood was sucked out of them. He was known all across the country and no hunter, no matter how good they thought they were never dared to go against the ripper.

"I see my reputation precedes me," he grins devilishly and takes yet another step towards her.

The rational part of her mind is screaming at her to run, to scream, to do anything that would get her out of this mess, but something is keeping her feet glued to the ground.

Abruptly he pushes her against the wall and gets a firm grip on her neck.

She tries to struggle, reach for the remaining stakes hidden in her boots, but the hold he has on her is too strong.

He notices her attempts – "I am not that easy to kill as was our vampire friend over there," he says and indicates with his head at the body. "So don't try anything foolish, because I wasn't planning on killing you."

Elena fixes a hard cold stare on his face – "What do you want then?" her voice is strangled and she's running out of air to breathe. He senses that and loosens his grip on her which gives her a chance to grab one of those stakes from her boots. Elena wrenches herself completely loose from the ripper's hold and jams a stake through his chest, missing his heart by an inch.

He lets out a groan of pain, but for Elena's utter terror he immediately pulls out the stake and pins her against the wall again.

"I told you, hunter." He hisses and squeezes her neck making Elena cry out.

Elena feels something trickling down onto her cheek and she realizes that she's bleeding.

The ripper's eyes are fixed on the trail of blood.

Her heart rate picks up.

_I'm going to die._

He lifts his finger and wipes the blood from her cheek with a swift movement. He then proceeds to lick his finger clean with his other hand still holding Elena a prisoner against the cold stone wall.

"Mmmm..." he mumbles and grins mischievously, "I never knew that a hunter could taste so good." He licks his lips and smiles again.

"Just get over with it." Elena says, the lack of oxygen making her head spin.

"As I told you before, I have no intention of killing you," the ripper says and loosens his hold on her again. "I trust I can count on you to be a good girl now?" he asks and locks his eyes with Elena's.

She nods hesitantly and stays still, knowing that fighting with him at this point would be useless. He'd win.

"So... Elena..." he drawls out her name, "let's get down to business."

The wheels begin to turn in her head – "Business?" she echoes back, a frown forming between her eyes.

"Yes." The ripper says, "I believe you'd be able to help me."

Elena lets out a shaky laugh which threatens to turn into a cough. "Help you?" she finally manages to get out.

"Exactly," he responds, "Help. Me." He says pointedly.

"Why would I help a vampire scum like you?" she spits, eyeing him venomously.

"Because we have a common enemy," her blood freezes in her veins at the mention of enemies. She has only one enemy and the only reason she is still a hunter is because one day she's going to rip out that bastard's heart with her bare hands.

"No..." she breathes...

The ripper smiles victoriously, "I see you know who I'm talking about and I know how desperately you want him dead." He lets go of Elena's neck and takes a step back.

Elena begins to cough and the taste of blood fills her mouth, apparently she bit her tongue somewhere along the way.

"What do you want from me?" Elena sputters, spitting out some of the blood. She can feel his eyes fixing on the blood that's now on the ground.

He shakes his head furiously and snaps out of the daze that the blood induced – "I want him dead and I want you to help me."

Elena straightens herself up, feeling a dull pain in her neck at the same time, but she chooses to ignore it. "Why should I help you?" she asks, narrowing her eyes at the man.

"Because I have a way of killing him and you don't."

Silence passes between them before the ripper speaks up again.

"I see you have a lot to consider," he grins again. "Let me know when you have decided."

He starts to walk away from Elena in the direction from which he came from, which is a dead end of brick wall.

"Wait!" Elena calls before he makes the jump over the wall. "How can I find you?"

He is standing at the top of the wall, the moonlight painting his outline in eerie colours. "I will find you." He says and turns his back to her, ready to jump down.

"Can you at least tell me your name?" Elena persists; she needs to know something about him.

He doesn't turn around but says his name so quietly that Elena barely can make it out – "Stefan Salvatore."

He jumps and Elena's left alone in the dark alley with only the body of a dead vampire keeping her company.


	2. Nox

**Yeah, this story is going to be rather dark and violent and moody. So if you don't like that sort of stuff I suggest you don't read this.**

* * *

She was only 17 years old when her world had opened up to so much more than what she had learned in different schools she had attended over the years since her family had moved a lot.

What still amazed her is how she had accepted everything with such ease, how the relief in her parents' eyes, when they told her that she comes from a line of powerful vampire hunters, was funny to her, because she always believed that there was something more to her entire family than met the eye.

The constant moving all over the country, the late hours her parents used to 'work', the weird vials, jars and bottles her parents kept in the cellar had given her the assurance that something fishy had been going on. Plus the constant classes of self-defence, of gun shooting, fencing, archery, different martial arts had always left Elena the impression that her parents had been preparing her for something.

She was right and that something had been huge.

So yes, it hadn't been a surprise at all when on her 17th birthday instead of a gift card to a spa or a new phone she got a set of wooden stakes and a thick dusty old book which apparently had everything you needed to know about vampires - how to recognize them, how to kill them, what were their weaknesses, different species of vampires and the last of all - the numerous families of vampires - all gathered in a single old book.

If someone told her today that all the horror stories are actually true, she would laugh in their faces.

Why, you ask? Because over the years she was actively hunting vampires, Elena learned to be mistrustful of absolutely everything. Even the slightest miscalculation could cost her life, so she always knew to double-check; you could say that she wasn't the naïve teenage girl anymore, a girl who had embraced her newfound calling with open arms just because it had been exciting and new.

That is why she's mistrustful of this Stefan Salvatore.

Elena knows everything there is to know about the Salvatore family, or so she thinks because of the books she has read and the research she has done on various vampire families. The Salvatore's are infamous inside the group of vampire hunters and rarely anyone survives to tell the story how they met Stefan or Damon Salvatore.

* * *

_Giuseppe Salvatore had been a powerful merchant back in 1850s, he had wealth, family and friends but that wasn't enough for him apparently. The history of the Salvatore's tells that the father had gone insane with the thought of immortality, he had searched the entire country for even a speck of hope that he could live on forever and he had finally found it in the face of Katerina Petrova, an old vampire, yet her beauty had been incomparable to any woman, living or dead.  
_

_Giuseppe's sons, Damon and Stefan had been fully grown by that time and well aware of their father's mental state and when their father had shown up at their doorstep with Katerina, the brothers had been suspicious at once at the sight of their father with a beautiful young woman._

_Katerina had promised Giuseppe eternal life in exchange of a promise. A promise that when Giuseppe finally has his wish, he will give up his sons to Katerina and he had gladly agreed to those terms since after his wife's death he had never really cared for them. _

_What Giuseppe did not know, however, was that Katerina had a plan of her own. She had no intentions of giving the old man the gift of eternal life. Her empty promises were only a cover for her real intentions which were as sinister as one's plans could get. Katerina knew that during his prime, Giuseppe Salvatore had acquired something she desperately needed. She also knew that this object was something Giuseppe wouldn't part with, even with the promises of an eternal life - that precious was the object to him._

_The object was precious to Katerina as well, since that was the key for her survival. Katerina was being hunted by an even older and even more powerful vampire than herself. In her past she had done some things that had set the stones rolling and had made her a fugitive. What she had done, no one, but the people involved, knew._

_Katerina's plan had been fairly simple – stick around long enough to snoop out the whereabouts of that said item and then kill the entire Salvatore family. She played with Giuseppe, making empty promises to him and the old man was willing to wait – everything just to get his desired immortality. However, the one thing Katerina did not see coming was love. She fell in love with the youngest of the Salvatores – Stefan. And even though Stefan had his own reservations of Katerina, he too, felt something the woman who mysteriously had lodged herself into their everyday life. _

_Katerina, who had never before loved anyone but herself, found herself in a difficult position. She knew that her life hung over a steep cliff and it was only a matter of time before she would plummet into the abyss. Time was slipping away from her and she had to act quickly. _

_Damon, who had been in the Civil war, had meanwhile returned and began instantly suspecting that something was wrong when he discovered the bite marks on his younger brother who apparently didn't know anything about those.  
_

_Things turned ugly rather quickly after Damon's return. Katerina still hadn't found what she was looking for and with every day passing, she grew more agitated; she also felt the keen eye of Damon over her and she knew that her time with the Salvatore's was coming to an abrupt end. _

_In a final moment of desperation to find out where Giuseppe had put the object she so desperately needed, she took Stefan in front of the old man and threatened to kill him right before his eyes, knowing that Giuseppe had a softer heart for Stefan than he did for Damon. _

_Her plan had a setback, though. Giuseppe couldn't care less for the fate of his son, and Katerina in an attempt to get any emotion out of the man, ruthlessly snapped Stefan's neck and threw his lifeless body in front of the father whose eyes betrayed no remorse or sadness whatsoever. _

_Enraged with Giuseppe's reaction, Katerina killed Giuseppe and ran, knowing that her enemies would be closing in on her soon if she stayed. She left Damon alive, knowing that he wouldn't be able follow her and knowing that Stefan would never forgive her if she killed his brother. _

_You see, Katerina knew exactly what she was doing. _

_Before confronting Giuseppe, she had compelled Stefan to drink her blood, knowing that he would eventually come back to her. May it be years, decades or centuries, Katerina hoped that she would find her way back to Stefan and she hoped that Stefan would forgive her all the horrible things she had done during her stay with the Salvatore's._

_So she fled. She ran, as she had been doing for a long while by then and after that she hasn't been heard of since._

_Damon, who hadn't been at home when Katerina killed his brother and father, discovered their bodies in horror. He immediately knew who had been behind the killings and swore to have his vengeance. But what he did not expect was Stefan's lifeless body starting to move again – first a simple twitch of a finger, then a deep rumbling in his throat, finally eyes snapping open in a hurry and panic setting in both Damon and Stefan._

_The rest of the story is somewhat a blur, at least for the hunter community. There are many theories of what happened next. Some say that it was Giuseppe's blood that turned Stefan into a vampire and later it was Stefan himself who turned Damon into a vampire as well. Others say that Stefan regained all his memory from the compulsions that Katerina had put him under and he realized that without blood he would die so Damon had offered himself to be the one helping Stefan complete his transition. It is also mentioned that shortly after Damon's transition into a vampire (which occurred soon after Stefan's) the brothers had a falling out and since then both Stefan and Damon have been on their separate ways. _

_Stefan Salvatore is known among the vampire community as a ripper. A ripper is a special type of vampire – a vampire who cannot control their bloodlust and rarely leaves their victims alive. A ripper killing is characterized by torn limbs, completely bloodless bodies..._

* * *

Elena closes the book with a loud thud, knowing very well how a ripper kills. The fact that she had met _the ripper _and still lived still makes her shudder in fear.

_Why let me live? _The question pounds in her head as the story of the Salvatore brothers replays over and over in her mind.

Elena had heard the tale of Stefan and Damon a million times, from all the stories of the famous vampire families this one was her favourite because it had the element of love entwined in it. Although she had never believed that the story could actually be true since parts of it sounded too crazy even for the supernatural world.

One thing she had been sure of, though, was that Stefan and Damon truly were real and yesterday had been a confirmation of the grandest sort.

Elena lets her eyes glaze over the thick book in her lap, the letters on the cover shining like a beacon at her – _The History of the Most Notorious Vampire Families and the Classification of Different Types of Vampires by Jonathan Gilbert. _

Elena's great grandfather had spent a good deal of his life writing this book which is now considered a sort of a holy book inside the hunter community since it describes almost every sort of vampire in minute detail plus the histories of different vampire families are always fascinating to read. Where her great-grandfather had got his information from, Elena did not know and even though she once asked her father about the stories, she only got a vague mumble out of him that she should leave it alone. So she did and never again did she question the authenticity of the stories, well, at least until now.

She places the book back on the shelf where she got it from and paces nervously around the room, considering her options.

Meeting once with the ripper and surviving can be accounted for pure luck, but meeting twice? That would be utter insanity in Elena's book. But she is curious about him, especially since he offered her something she has yearned for a long time.

A way of killing _him. _

* * *

"You think she'll come to you?" a woman's voice asks beside him as they are sitting on the rooftop watching the city lights flicker relentlessly.

"I'm sure of it," Stefan responds as he observes the pitiful humans walking about, not knowing the danger looming over their heads.

The woman beside her purses her lips in contempt – "How can you be so sure of yourself? Our kind is something she loathes and has been trained to kill, how can you possibly expect her to cooperate with us?" Her voice rises into the sky, making Stefan wince in annoyance.

"Caroline, I've told you a thousand times already, she's the only one who can help us defeat him."

"Him, him, him!" Caroline exclaims, "You never say his name, why is that?"

Stefan glances at the blonde woman sitting beside him, her eyes fixed intently on his face, he feels a rush of anger surge through his body, but he wills himself to suppress it, too scared of hurting the only friend he has.

"_Silas," _he spits out, "Happy now?" he asks with narrowed eyes.

Caroline flashes a dry smile at Stefan and turns her attention back to the street below them. A moment of uncomfortable silence lingers between the two vampires before both of them speak up at the same time - "I'm sorry!"

They both smile at each other as they realize they both had got a bit too frustrated with each other. Sometimes their minds work way too similarly and that scares the both of them. But they both guess that 50 years of friendship did that to people.

"Why her?" Caroline suddenly asks with hesitation. "There are so many other hunters out there and you pick the most dangerous one to help you."

"She has more reason to want him dead than any other hunter out there. I'm even sure that the other hunters wouldn't dare to against him." Stefan says while eyeing a long-legged redheaded woman coming out of a lingerie store, the sight of her makes the hunger he has inside him more prominent and he can feel the veins bulging under his eyes. Thankfully, Caroline is too busy looking anywhere but at Stefan so she doesn't notice the change in him.

"Right. The fact that Silas," Caroline says the name very sharply, "killed her parents."

"Exactly," Stefan says gruffly, his eyes still fixed on the redhead who has now stopped in the middle of the street and is looking at her phone. "Plus she's the only descendant of the Gilbert line," Stefan adds absentmindedly.

"The Gilberts?" Caroline asks in surprise and locks her eyes on Stefan. "I thought Silas got rid of them."

The redheaded woman is now sitting on a bench right in front of the lingerie store she had come out of, immersed with something that's on her phone. Her brow is slightly furrowed, Stefan notices and she's tapping her right foot nervously. Something must be going on.

"Stefan?" Caroline's voice breaks through the haze of his hungry thoughts.

"Um yeah, he likes to think that the Gilberts are dead, yes." Stefan says and gets on his feet, the view from the rooftop magnificent before his eyes.

Caroline follows his lead and stands up as well, finally noticing the redhead that Stefan's been eyeing so intently.

"You found your dinner already?" She whines and crosses her arms, "Not fair, I haven't even begun to consider anyone," Caroline says petulantly and Stefan almost expects her to stomp her foot.

It is a game Caroline and Stefan like to play. Preying on people on the rooftop, choosing their victims. The only rule they have is that the person has to be someone clueless, someone so immersed in their own little world and habits that when they approach him or her, they won't suspect a thing.

Stefan almost always wins because he knows how to read people, Caroline's patience is too thin for a game like that, but she always enjoys their little talks on the rooftops, plus the view in her opinion always makes up for the losing.

"I can share," Stefan grins widely and heads for the door which leads down the rooftop. Usually he would jump down the roof, but since the time of the day won't allow him and Caroline to do that, they have to resort to the mundane way which is going down the stairs.

"Hell no, I don't want no skank blood in me," Caroline says with disgust.

"Skank?" Stefan asks incredulously as they descend.

"Redheads are _always _skanks."

"You're stereotyping, Caroline," Stefan says with a chuckle. "I personally find redheads especially... appetizing."

"Maybe so." Caroline says, "I might give her a try, though. I haven't had a decent meal for a while and I didn't have the time to choose my own person so..." she muses and steps out in the street with Stefan, who is already stalking over to the redheaded woman.

Stefan stops for a second, shoots Caroline one last grin and mouths "Dinner time," before sitting right next to the woman whose lips curve into an involuntary smile when she sees the gorgeous man sitting right next to her.

_Oh this is going to be easy, _Stefan thinks.

* * *

**A big big thank you for those who took their time to let me know your thoughts. I appreciate it so so much, thank you!**


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